Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Information and Communication has urgedenterprises to collaborate with the Government in efforts to build a healthyInternet society through advertising only on online channels which comply withestablished laws.

MinisterTruong Minh Tuan issued the advice at a meeting on March 16 with major brands,saying that online advertising is an inevitable trend but also implies risks,especially when inadequate attention is paid to control the appearance ofadvertising.

The callcame several days after advertisements by some major brands accidentallyappeared in clips containing pornographic, slanderous or anti-governmentcontent on YouTube, the world’s largest online video site.

“It isreally worrying, as it badly affects the prestige of brands,” the minister was quotedas saying by online newspaper vnexpress.net.

Tuan saidthat it is not only a problem for the advertising industry of Vietnam, but alsofor the global industry.

What ismore alarming is that running advertisements on clips with questionable contentcould help owners of those accounts earn money, which indirectly encouragesthem to upload more, a representative from Qnet said.

NguyenThanh Lam, Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and ElectronicInformation, cited statistics that as of March 16, there were 15 accountsuploading 8,000 clips with immoral content, and attracting nearly 1 millionsubscribers. Those clips boasted a combined 500 million views.

Lam saidthat the department is working with Google, which owns YouTube, to remove suchclips, and to date, only 42 have been removed.

At theMarch 16 meeting, all major brands including Vinamilk, Ford Vietnam, VinHome,Sungroup and Unilever Vietnam, said that they had stopped advertising onYouTube after receiving the Ministry of Information and Communication’srequest.

They alsosaid that they will not resume advertising until ad agencies developcomprehensive solutions to ensure compliance with the established laws.

“Throughour advertising agents, we have asked Google and YouTube to ensure a safe advertisingenvironment so as to protect businesses’ brands,” a representative from thedairy giant Vinamilk said.

Adagencies said that when signing contracts with Google to run advertisements fortheir partners on YouTube, they selected the appearance of ads through keywords and categories of clips, adding that the cooperation of Google isnecessary in filtering and preventing the appearance of ads in toxic clips.

🍃 Onlinenewspaper vneconomy.vn reported that Google has sent an officialresponse late on March 16, saying that YouTube has clear policies forgovernmental requests for content removal.

A YouTubespokesperson also said that the company does not comment on specific cases, butit will continue working with the Government of Vietnam and is always willingto receive questions or concerns from the Government, according to thenewspaper.

🗹 Theministry called on enterprises to participate in an action programme whichincludes saying no to advertising on immoral clips, only running advertisementson channels which comply with Vietnamese law, building a healthy Internetsociety and protecting copyright. - VNA